Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created insurer of last resort in Florida, has officially been overtaken as the state’s largest property insurer. This change is viewed as a key indicator of progress toward a more stable, market-driven insurance landscape.

Officials at Citizens announced late last week that October takeouts and policy assumptions by private carriers reduced its policy count to approximately 560,000, a level not seen since spring 2021 — just before Florida faced a litigation crisis and multiple insurer failures that expanded Citizens’ exposure.

With this decline, Universal Property & Casualty Insurance in Fort Lauderdale and State Farm Florida Insurance are now the state’s largest property carriers. Universal reported 561,546 policies in Florida at the end of September, while State Farm held 646,429 policies at the end of August, according to the latest Florida regulatory data.

The current Citizens policy count is about 40% lower than its peak of 1.3 million policies in September 2023, three months before legislative reforms limited one-way attorney fees and reduced incentives for claims litigation. A smaller Citizens presence indicates that more policyholders are returning to private carriers as premiums drop, reflecting the impact of both law changes and the depopulation program. Officials say these developments show signs of a stabilizing market.

A Citizens spokesperson called the new figures “significant,” noting that roughly 199,000 policies were transferred through takeout programs in October.

Participation in takeout programs has increased recently. During the first half of 2025, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) approved takeout offers for around 1.2 million Citizens policies, but only about 200,000 were accepted. This fall, nine insurers were approved for 368,947 takeouts, and more than half were finalized in October. The largest share went to Slide Insurance and Manatee Insurance Exchange.

These shifts coincide with broader signs of market improvement. Security First Insurance recently announced one of the largest statewide homeowners rate decreases in three years, further indicating market stabilization. Auto insurers are also benefiting: State Farm announced an average 10% cut to personal auto premiums in Florida, the latest in a series of reductions this year.

Overall, these changes highlight a strengthening Florida property insurance market, with Citizens shrinking and private insurers gaining ground.